Tusovkarock

Concert promoter, journalist and music export researcher Dr Greg Goldenzwaig takes a look at the import-export of rock and pop music between Finland and Russia. Some things have changed for sure in the past ten years.

From the 1950s through to the 1980s, Russian songs in Finnish translation made their way into Finnish ears through record players and radio waves. Today, it is possible to dance to live Russian-language music in Finland, partly thanks to the Tusovka Association, established in 1998.

Before the great October Revolution in 1917, the cultural contacts between Helsinki and St. Petersburg were amazingly strong and lively. St. Petersburg was the political and, above all, cultural capital of the Russian Empire, to which Finland also belonged.